[The Don] Motorsport Returns to eRepublik #NOW

Day 4,687, 09:12 • Published in India India • by DonMogul

Hello everyone and welcome to my first attempt at running a racing league with somewhat modern tools!

In the past I have used GP4 by Geoff Crammond. A brilliant F1 sim that I still race with TODAY but with this run through for the first time ever we will be using the iRacing sim software.

iRacing (especially when they run special events like the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans) attract quite a few RL drivers. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen from Formula 1 team together to take on these events!

A bit off topic here in eRepublik but here is a rather hilarious moment where Norris and Verstappen's team are leading the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps and Max Verstappen's brake pedal FALLS OFF his sim setup at this place.



Of course they were so far ahead that even with all that they still won.

OK So how does this work?

Firstly I can have a massive field of cars (up to 50!)

Competitors can register to have ONE car for free. Further cars will cost 1 GOLD. Limit of 3 cars per person. There will be prize money paid out to the top 5 competitors, the amount depends on how many cars are in the series.

Competitors will also be able to specify 3 colours to appear on their cars. You can ask for any colour you like but to be certain you get the exact colour I recommend using this site https://www.color-hex.com/random.php and sending me the colour codes.

Now for the fun bit!

You will also be able to customise your drivers skills across 5 categories with the sum of all the skills being 260. If you purchase extra seats you can send in TOTALLY DIFFERENT stats for each driver!

Here are the available stats that competitors will be able to customise:

Aggression (0-100):
A measure of the AI Driver’s behavior when interacting with other cars. Low Aggression encourages more car spacing and less overtake attempts. High Aggression encourages tighter car spacing and more overtake attempts.

Optimism (0-100):
A measure of the AI Driver’s confidence in their own skill. A lower value results in more conservative throttle and braking behavior, such as lift and coast into a braking zone. A higher value results in more confident throttle and brake behavior, such as aiming for optimal acceleration and braking marks more often.

Smoothness (0-100):
A measure of the AI Driver’s steering behavior. A lower value results in more oversteer. A higher value results in more understeer.

Pit Crew Skill (0-100):
A measure of the training and consistency of the AI Driver’s pit crew. A lower value results in slower pit service times. A higher value results in optimal pit service times.

Pitting Strategy Riskiness (0-100):
A measure of the AI Driver’s likelihood to gamble with pit service. A lower value results in conservative pitting strategy. A higher value results in pushing the car to avoid pitting.

And now the settings that will change between races

You old dinosaurs will remember that I used to fix 'success ballast' to the top 3 finishers of any given race. I will do the same here but its not ALL bad news.

Relative Skill:
A lower value results in slower cornering speeds and a less optimum driving line. A higher value results in faster cornering speeds and a more optimum driving line.

Each driver will start with 80% skill.
Winning racers will lose 5%
2nd place will lose 3%
3rd place will lose 1%

Sounds bad huh? But it is balanced slightly with the following tweak.

Age:
The simulated age in years of the AI Driver. A value closer to prime racing age results in faster reaction times. As age increases, it also provides racing experience that can slightly improve overall performance.

Each driver will start at the tender age of 13!
Winning racers will age 3 years.
2nd place will age 2 years.
3rd place will age 1 year.

Car Setups

I'll narrow it down to 1 parameter this season. Keep things simple and make it more complicated for season 2.

Downforce (High/Medium/Low):
Higher downforce means lower top speeds but better cornering.
Lower downforce means higher top speeds but slower cornering.
Medium is a balance between the two.

Typical Race Weekend

I'll post up an article which will contain a video of a hotlap of the coming track. Using the information you see, I will ask for the setups for all cars before a certain eRepublik day.

NOTE: Failure to submit a setup will incur a SEVERE penalty on driver skill

The article will also include a date and time for the livestream of the race!

Once the deadline has passed, I will use everyone's setups for a single hotlap and record it. Cars that finish in the top 5 will receive boosts to driver skill (since I can't install setups on AI cars, the increase in driver skill simulates a better setup car).

I then livestream the race with my commentary during the event. I do the maths, edit the video to a shorter YouTUBE friendly one and post up rankings in a new article with details on the next race!

Interested?
Post in the comments below including how many seats you want. First come first serve! I will then be in touch with all competitors regarding setting their drivers up!